This is one of my absolute favourite Buffy novels. It's very Giles centric but also we see the return of Pike, Buffy's ex honey. I love the how the story is played out, especially the effect it has on her and Angel. A real good read.
Oh good, I'm not off-base then. Hehe.
And yeah, it would have made it so much...I can't think of any word but darker. And you're right; it would have raised the book a lot. To the level of the uber-novels. Plus it would have been on the same level of deep and darkness that the show was. The sudden 'oh it's not' slightly ruined it for me, but I still enjoyed the whole book.
Xander's debate over whether looking in the teacher's (who turned out to be the glamor thing...) was stalking or helping made me laugh. So very Xander.